You are on page 1of 8

THE STRENGTH OF ACIDS AND ALKALIS

( Teacher’s Guide/ Chemistry Form 4/ Spreadsheets )

SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT

The pH Scale

Increasingly acidic Increasingly alkaline

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Hydrochloric neutral pH : water sodium


Acid hydroxide

pH is a measure how acidic or alkaline a solution in water. This pH number is


numbered between 0 and 14.
a) If a solution has pH below 7, it is acidic.
b) If solution has pH of 7, it is neutral.
c) If a solution has a pH above 7, it is alkaline.
The lower the pH value, the higher is its hydrogen ion ( H+ ), so the solution will
become more acidic and this is compare to alkaline where, if the value of the pH is
higher, the lower the number of the hydrogen ion ( H+ ) since the solution become
alkaline and dissociates to form more hydroxide ion ( OH- ) when in water.
When water dissociates, it will form hydrogen ions ( H+ ) and hydroxide ion ( OH- ).
H2O (l) H+ ( aq ) + OH- ( aq )
Thus, an aqueous solution of any dissolved salt will contain hydrogen ions ( H+ ) and
hydroxide ions ( OH- ).
UNIQUE FEATURE OF ACTIVITY

This activity requires students to calculate the morality and the pH of the
solution by using certain formula. The students also requires to study the relationship
between pH and morality of acid and alkali. The unique feature of using spreadsheets
are :
• To help the students to tabulate the data and assists the students to calculate
the answers by the given equation. This help the students to rearrange the data
get from any experiment or exercises and analysis it in the form of spreadsheet
where students can enter the data in the column provide in the table.
• Moreover, students can save drastic amounts of time by increasing their
productivity when dealing with various types of data that can be expressed in
various ways such as pie charts, line graphs, bar graphs and other format
suitable with the information gain.
ENGAGE

THE SOUR TASTE OF ORANGE

The woman is eating a slice of orange.


• Why is the woman show a face like that?
• What is the orange taste ?
• What is going to be happened to the woman when she eat to many orange?
• How could this happened?
EMPOWER

1. Students are given:


• Beaker
• pH meter
• measuring cylinder
• hydrochloric acid ( 1.0 mol dm-3, 0.1 mol dm-3, 0.01 mol dm-3, 0.001 mol
dm-3, 0.0001mol dm-3 )
• sodium hydroxide ( 1.0 mol dm-3, 0.1 mol dm-3, 0.01 mol dm-3, 0.001 mol
dm-3, 0.0001mol dm-3 )
2. Students need to plan an experiment to determine the relationship between pH
and molarity of acid and alkali.
3. Students have to construct a hypothesis for this experiment.
4. Students should know the relationship between pH and molarity of acid and
alkali.
5. You may give these instructions to start the activity
 Open a spreadsheet file
 Name the file as “relationship between pH and molarity of acid and
alkali”.
 Measure 100cm3 of HCl 1.0 mol dm-3 using a measuring cylinder and
pour it into a dry beaker.
 Measure the pH value of the solution by the pH meter and record a
spreadsheet.
 Repeat step 1 to 3 by using the concentration of acid and alkali as
shown in a spreadsheet.
How to set up your spreadsheet:
1. Copy borders from column A1 to B7.
2. Concentration of HCl is write in columns A1 to A7
3. The pH value is write from columns B1 to B7.
4. After that we set up the other spreadsheet for sodium hydroxide but with the same
method as before. It has slightly different only.

How to draw a graph with your spreadsheet:


1. Highlights columns A1 to B7.
2. Select a smooth line graph.
3. Click “Series” box, this will draw lines for column A1 as HCl ( mol dm-3 ).
4. Click category ( x ) axis label, highlight A7 to A3 ( this will show the actual scale
of x-axis according to data), then, click “Next”.
5. Name the chart.
6. Label x-axis and y-axis.
7. Do the same for the graph of pH value alkali vs NaOH ( mol dm-3 )
Data for pH value
against concentration Data for pH value
of HCl against concentration
of NaOH
Questions
1. Based on plotted graph, deduce the relationship between pH value and molarity of
acid and alkali on each of the following.
a) Shape of the graph of HCl and NaOH.
b) pH value of HCl and NaOH.
2. Why use the same concentrations for HCl and NaOH?

Answer:
1.a) The shape of the graph is linear. But for graph of HCl is decreases simultaneously
while the graph of NaOH is increases simultaneously.
b) The pH value of HCl will decreases if the concentration increases while the pH
value of NaOH is will increases if the concentration is increases.
2. To show the comparison of pH value although uses of same concentration for each
solution. Besides that, it will shows the different strength of acid and alkali.
ENHANCE

Do you what is this?


What is the main content of this detergent?
How does it work on dirty thing such as
cleaning floor?
Explain why it is very important in life?

ANSWERS :

1. This is detergent that used to clean any dirty things in many cleaning
substances in use in our homes today, especially in kitchen cleaners like oven spray,
floor cleaners and creams for sinks. Detergent is a salt that formed from neutralization
between alkyl hydrogen sulphate and an alkali. The most effective detergent is
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, C12H25NaO4S. They are alkaline because they contain
ammonia or sodium hydroxide, which attack grease and to make sure that there is no
bacteria on it. The main content of this detergent is the alkalis such as ammonia or
sodium hydroxide, which attack grease. Sodium lauryl sulphate has polar end which is
negatively charged and it is hydrophilic which attract water. The tail part is non-polar
end and has no charge. It is hydrophobic which repel water. The hydrophobic tail of
the anion part dissolves in the grease and the hydrophilic part dissolves in the water.
After that, the grease started to loosen and lift off from the surface of the shirt .
Therefore, rubbing and scrubbing help to faster the loosen of the grease from the
surface of the shirt. The grease is surrounded by the anion part and the grease is total
lifted off from the surface of the shirt and suspended in water.

You might also like